


Hunting bounty

by Nele



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-04
Updated: 2011-05-04
Packaged: 2017-10-18 23:37:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/194525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nele/pseuds/Nele
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>June was very fond of the new world order.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hunting bounty

June was very fond of the new world order. The end of the war had encouraged a lot of people to start looking for missing loved ones, so business was good, and the risk of Fire Nation soldiers trying to interfere with her work was considerably lower.

Not that June had anything against the good and often quite loaded men and women of the Fire Nation. As a matter of fact, Fire Prince Pouty, now elevated to Fire Lord Pouty -oh, she had _laughed_ when that was announced- was her new favorite person. He was suddenly the only guy sitting on all the gold in the royal Fire treasury, and now that he was the head of a nation, he never seemed to run out of people he needed to find. Mostly enemies of the state who'd been supporters of Daddy Pouty and had committed horrible war crimes, although he did bring a personal case to her every now and again.

The enemies of the state were often hiding very well. It wasn't rare for them to be on the road for days while tracking, and Pouty was just stupid enough to let June charge him by the hour. As an added bonus, Pouty either came alone or with that funny blind girl whenever he needed June's services. His creepy, grabby grandpa was apparently enjoying retirement in Ba Sing Se. June hoped that the smelly old fart would be dropped down a deep hole by some vengeful earthbenders.

Pouty, though. Pouty was a different matter entirely. Now that he had hair and a bit less attitude, he was a surprisingly attractive morsel, even with that thing on his face. June had never slept with a firebender, and he felt deliciously hot at her back when they rode on Nyla. She started paying attention while he went through his bare-chested morning exercises and liked what she saw. She followed him to his bath in the stream and spied on him from the bushes, and oh yes, he'd definitely become a big boy. She wouldn't mind a ride on that.

She actually told him so out loud the next time they were traveling together, kind of by accident, after she'd had a little too much baiju in the inn where they were spending the night. Pouty immediately dropped his teacup in her lap. A few minutes of stammering and waffling later, June had been enlightened as to the existence of Girlfriend Pouty, who wasn't accompanying her sweetheart because she didn't like riding smelly animals and preferred to keep an eye on things at home while Pouty was off having adventures.

It turned out later that Girlfriend Pouty was more like On-And-Off Sometimes Girlfriend Pouty. Pouty was tight-lipped about his personal life, and annoyingly careful about not getting drunk so he might spill something. His blind earthbender friend, however, didn't mind filling June in about Pouty's private affairs so long as June kept bringing her the alcohol that bartenders refused to give to little girls. Apparently, Pouty and his girlfriend broke up and got back together about twice a month. They took turns dumping each other. Occasionally, they threw each other in fountains. June took heart from that. If she got lucky and paid attention, she might manage to catch Pouty on the rebound.

June knew that Pouty's mother was missing, but it was almost a year before he got desperate enough about his useless private search to turn to June for help. He seemed almost afraid to have the matter settled with any kind of finality.

It turned out to be the hardest case he'd ever brought her. All he had left of the woman were some clothes she'd worn maybe once or twice, six years ago. Nyla had a devil of a time following the scent. Finally, after three exhausting weeks of galloping about the Earth Kingdom countryside, they found a grave.

The vast majority of June's postwar searches ended with Nyla pinpointing the location of a body. There were a lot of desperate people looking for soldier sons or daughters who had disappeared somewhere on the war front, and of course most of those missing persons were simply dead. June was used to tragic scenes of wailing fathers and mothers scrabbling at the earth or clutching sun-bleached bones, so Pouty's tearful dismay at the discovery of his mother's final resting place wasn't new or particularly unsettling. What did surprise June was how bad she felt for him. He'd become a friend, of sorts. She didn't like disappointing him, and he was a little more than disappointed this time. Usually she let upset clients roll around in the dust until they'd calmed down enough to at least count out her payment. Pouty, she ended up hugging and patting on the back until he stopped sniffling.

It was a long ride from the grave to where Pouty had hidden his trusty little war balloon. He kept bursting into tiny, muffled sounds of distress at odd intervals. Finally, June turned around in the saddle and told him to just sit closer and hold on already instead of whining like a kicked puppy. He spent the rest of the day clutching her waist and crying silently into her shoulder. She considered trying to kiss him while his guard was down, but that would have been a bit mean even for her.

The next time he turned up, he brought Sometimes Girlfriend Pouty, who had been promoted to Fiancée Pouty. The fiancée part was a tad unfortunate, but June loved the girl on sight. She was five times too gorgeous for Pouty. She had June's kind of wardrobe, June's kind of make-up, June's kind of humor, and June's kind of outlook on the proper treatment of men who didn't take women warriors seriously.

There were a lot of those in the Earth Kingdom, and the inn they were meeting in wasn't a place where people knew who June was. It wasn't long before three half-drunk rockheads wandered up to their table and made them a lewd proposition while Pouty was away to get his girl another drink. June kicked the first rockhead's nuts up into his throat, Fiancée Pouty flung the other two against the wall with one throw of a handful of shuriken, and then the rockheads' friends ran over to help. It was a slightly unfair contest, in June's opinion; she had only two hands to fight with, while Fiancée Pouty seemed to have an endless supply of deliciously wicked-looking knives and needles hidden about her... everywhere. Still, only sore losers complained, and June graciously admitted defeat when the final count revealed that Fiancée Pouty had brought down fifteen rockheads to June's eleven. She even helped the girl gather her weapons from walls, upturned furniture, and the meaty backsides of groaning and horizontal rockheads.

When June looked about the thrashed room in search of the last shuriken, she spotted Pouty leaning in the doorway. The drink he was holding was almost empty, so he'd obviously been watching them for a long time. He was absently fondling the missing shuriken. There was a dreamy sort of grin on his face, a high blush on his unscarred cheek, and a tent in his pants.

Fiancée Pouty walked up to him, grabbed him by the front of his tunic, and started dragging him towards the stairs that led to the rooms above. She grabbed June's hand in passing.

Pouty didn't stop grinning while his girl pinned him to the bed by his clothes, and he didn't stop grinning when she started taking off her silks and asked June which end of Pouty she wanted first. He stopped grinning _instantly_ when June asked Fiancée Pouty if they'd ever tried anything like flogging. The girl tilted her head, obviously considering it, and Pouty's eyes began to dart between the two of them. He didn't look scared or even alarmed, just very confused.

June smiled down at him and patted his hair. Kids.


End file.
